Cloud migrations rarely fail because of the cloud. They fail because of decisions made — or skipped — before the migration started. Here's the checklist we run through with every client before a single workload moves.
Inventory everything, not just the obvious systems
Most teams can list their major applications from memory. Few can list every integration, cron job, and internal tool that depends on them. Missing dependencies are the single biggest cause of migration surprises.
Decide: lift-and-shift or re-architect?
Lift-and-shift gets you to the cloud fast but often carries forward the same inefficiencies you had on-premise — just billed hourly instead of depreciated. Re-architecting takes longer but is usually the better long-term investment if the workload will run for years.
Model the cost before you move, not after
Cloud pricing is granular in ways on-premise costs never were. A workload that seemed cheap to run in a data center can get expensive fast on cloud infrastructure if it wasn't sized correctly. Run the cost model first.
Plan the rollback, even if you don't expect to need it
Every migration plan should answer: if this goes wrong at 2am, what's the fastest path back to a working state? Teams that skip this question are the ones that end up firefighting in production.
Sequence by risk, not by ease
It's tempting to migrate the easiest systems first to build momentum. We usually recommend migrating a medium-risk, medium-complexity workload first — it surfaces real issues without threatening the business if something goes wrong.
Get these five right and the actual migration is usually the least eventful part of the project. Our Cloud Services team runs this exact checklist on every engagement.